Ensuring a political space for conflict by applying Chantal Mouffe to post-war reconstruction and development

Abstract

Post war reconstruction and Development are no longer viewed as separate conceptual or practical domains. This evolving concept is underpinned by a series of assumptions which assert the necessary links between democratisation, economic reform and sustainable peace. This paper builds on critiques of these assumptions by applying Chantal's Mouffe's political philosophy. In particular, the paper will focus on democratisation and the way in which Mouffe's theoretical work leads us to consider a broader space for politics, the constructive role of conflict and the possibility of a more nuanced approach to the nature of post war societies and processes of sustainable peace.

Transforming Brexit Britain

“…Basically, the centre and left of politics has shifted to the extent that the Les Trente Glorieuses and the vision of the social contract it represents have been profoundly undermined. Nationalism and populism have sought to fill this political vacuum with pledges to upend the status quo (Jones, 2014). Laclau and Mouffe advocate a form of democracy which seeks to move away from the essentialism and determinism of traditional radical left politics of the post-war period and embraces a renewed liberal democracy (radical pluralism) as a means by which transformative politics can be advanced.…”

Can we ‘transform our world’ without affecting international power relations? A political analysis of the United Nations development agenda

“…Ziai (2004Ziai ( , 2007Ziai ( , 2009Ziai ( , 2014Ziai ( , 2015 and McKinnon (2005McKinnon ( , 2006McKinnon ( , 2007McKinnon ( , 2008 are the best examples. See also Böhm & Brei, 2008;Cornwall, 2007;Geiser, 2012;Huber & Joshi, 2015;Ireland & McKinnon, 2013;Jones, 2014;Korf, 2010;Özen & Özen, 2017;Telleria, 2017b. It is very meaningful, in this sense, that, since the publication of the MD in 2000, no authors have critically analysed the UN development agenda from a post-Marxist perspective.…”